OS X Clean Up & Maintenance

H

h364

New Member
Hi there,

Some of you may know i've recently converted to Mac, and i'm loving it! Just get used to the differences, such as no .exe, and less right clicking, but it's great!

Just a few questions i haven't be able to find out from google, i was hoping a few of the resident OS X users could help me. :D

First of all, my @mac.com account i made for iChat, could is use this as an e-mail address?

In addition, is there any way to use Mail to access hotmail e-mail?

Also, what should i do to perform regular maintenance to my mac? For example, if i was using windows, i would clean up the disc, defrag hdd, delete temp files etc, what would i do on a Mac?

Also, any tips, essential software for a Mac noob!?

Just one more thing, with the integrated nVidia Geforce 9400M, what games would run ok? I don't really play much games at all, but it would be nice to play BF: 2 with my brother!
 
BF2 would run very smooth. By the sounds of it, we have the same MacBook. I also have 9400M :)

I don't play a whole lot of games either, but:

Counter Strike: Source (about 90fps on default settings)
Warhammer online (not sure about fps, but on minimum graphic settings, it doesnt feel choppy at all.

EDIT*

And yes, I'm with you. I also recently converted to mac (less than a month ago), and when you get past those little differences, its amazing. I wont go back to windows until they make some impressive changes, although i've heard a lot of good stuff about certain linux distro's lately, but haven't tried them out. Don't really feel the need to tho, now that i have OSX :)
 
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h364 said:
Hi there,

Some of you may know i've recently converted to Mac, and i'm loving it! Just get used to the differences, such as no .exe, and less right clicking, but it's great!

Just a few questions i haven't be able to find out from google, i was hoping a few of the resident OS X users could help me. :D

First of all, my @mac.com account i made for iChat, could is use this as an e-mail address?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can. .mac is a not worth it in my opinion though I could point you to a few free services that make up dot mac.

In addition, is there any way to use Mail to access hotmail e-mail?
Click to expand...

I don't think hotmail supports POP, but if it does then yes you can. Just get a gmail account though. You can use gmail with Mail and your gmail jabber account with iChat that is what I do.

Also, what should i do to perform regular maintenance to my mac? For example, if i was using windows, i would clean up the disc, defrag hdd, delete temp files etc, what would i do on a Mac?
Click to expand...

Not really. HFS+, like NTFS is a self optimizing file system. Every time you boot the machine it should run fsck (file system check) and every time you install an update or a major app it will do disk optimizations.

Also, any tips, essential software for a Mac noob!?
Click to expand...

Depends, what you going to use it for?

Just one more thing, with the integrated nVidia Geforce 9400M, what games would run ok? I don't really play much games at all, but it would be nice to play BF: 2 with my brother!
Click to expand...

Should be able to play most modern games, some not at full settings. Most modern games aren't developed to play on high end rigs, they are just developed to run at max settings on high end rigs.

Best maintainence would be to uninstall it and install ubuntu.
Click to expand...

Not helpful or relevant to the OP's question.
 
Vizy93 said:
Here you go dude:

http://www.mactricksandtips.com/2008/01/top-100-essential-mac-applications.html
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Eh, I kind of agree with that. I will give you my essentials, and I will try to only list the free open source ones

Fink Commander http://finkcommander.sourceforge.net/

TextWrangler http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/

VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Flip 4 Mac http://www.telestream.net/flip4mac-wmv/overview.htm

Firefox (duh every computer should have firefox)

dropbox www.getdropbox.com

iAlertU if you have a mac laptop http://www.slappingturtle.com/home/

neo office (cocoa version of open office) http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

filezilla FTP client http://filezilla-project.org/
 
Thanks alot for all these very helpful replies guys! Although, some people really do hate Macs!

These apps sound great, i'll be using most of these!

In terms of what i'll be using the Macbook for, just general school use, some media stuff like music, pictures and movies, and some light music production. I've got Parallels desktop, that seems useful, although i only have it in case of compatibility with some files and stuff at school.

Thanks again!
 
Well then good luck about it. But I think that it's really imposible for the mac to have no games. They possibly developed a game for the mac OS I think. So keep up on don't give up on researching.
 
tlarkin said:
Eh, I kind of agree with that. I will give you my essentials, and I will try to only list the free open source ones

Fink Commander http://finkcommander.sourceforge.net/

TextWrangler http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/

VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Flip 4 Mac http://www.telestream.net/flip4mac-wmv/overview.htm

Firefox (duh every computer should have firefox)

dropbox www.getdropbox.com

iAlertU if you have a mac laptop http://www.slappingturtle.com/home/

neo office (cocoa version of open office) http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

filezilla FTP client http://filezilla-project.org/
Click to expand...

Why isn't Quicksilver on there? :P

Also use Transmission for torrents.
 
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